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Thursday, April 20, 2017

It's time to clean out your medicine cabinet for the National Prescription Drug Take Back Day on April 29

Do you know the expiration dates of the medicines that have been piling up in your kitchen cabinet? If not, you might want to check those dates and throw away old medicine as part of the National Prescription Drug Take Back Day Saturday, April 29. The Kentucky State Police are partnering with the U.S.Drug Enforcement Agency to not only encourage citizens to remove potentially dangerous medicines from their homes, but to also dispose of them safely.

"Prescription medications play an important role in the health of millions of Americans. However, leftover or expired drugs can be harmful in a variety of ways,” KSP Commissioner Rick Sanders said in a press release. He noted that expired medications can lose their effectiveness and pollute water supplies if disposed of improperly. He warns, “Unused medicines in homes can also be accidentally ingested by children, stolen, misused and abused."

Rates of prescription drug abuse in the U.S. are at alarming levels and are showing no signs of slowing down. According to the DEA, "the majority of prescription drug abusers report that they get their drugs from friends and family including the home medicine cabinet," the release said.

This year, KSP has again set up 16 locations throughout Kentucky to serve as collection points for the safe, convenient and responsible disposal of unused or expired prescription drugs. For a list of locations click here. Collection activities will take place from 10:00 a.m. through 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 29. For more information about the ‘Take Back’ program, contact KSP at 502-782-1780 or visit the DEA website.

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Kentucky Health News is an independent news service of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, based in the School of Journalism and Media at the University of Kentucky, with support from the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky.Republication of any KHN material with proper credit is hereby authorized, but if the republication is longer than a news brief we ask that it contain the first sentence of this paragraph. Thanks!